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​Whenever you hear the word ‘telemarketing’ you may think of annoying calls. There are definitely different types of telemarketers especially for B2B that typically benefit from product training to have meaningful conversations. Some are very professional and can properly qualify opportunities and uncover great leads, while others just want to sell at any cost. Cold calling has damaged the reputation of telemarketing and for this reason some organizations shy away from using this traditional method of engaging with a prospect and opt for soft tactics such as email or content marketing.​Today’s focus on digital marketing may have disrupted traditional marketing tactics, but the fact is that telemarketing is not dead. It’s an effective way to reach out to prospects and to re-engage dormant enterprise accounts that have not done business with you in a long time.

Telemarketing is the most effective way to proactively start a sales conversation with a prospect you are not doing business with and ​that did not contact you.

Digital marketing is about inbound marketing.There are many ways to reach out to audiences through digital marketing tactics but at the end of the day, this achieves brand awareness with the hope to generate interest about the benefits of your product/service. Customers need to come to you to discuss their needs.Inbound marketing strategies use SEO, Pay-Per-click advertising and landing pages, website inquiry forms, social inquiries, but there are so many ways for prospects to contact us and they all feel rather impersonal. A conversation remains important to create a personal interaction and instill confidence in the solution or supplier. People still buy from people!​Modernizing your marketing approach Modernizing your marketing approach can lead to higher conversions and generate revenue faster. Business intelligence generated by your multi-channel campaigns can help telemarketing agents be more successful with smart calls. As a business, you need to understand your audience and find out if your products and services fill a need and provide value.

Track emails sent to clients and prospects for interest levels from your offers. Since you should have already received permission to send emails to your contacts, these communications should have a good open and click through rate. You will be able to track contact activity for asset downloads and views such as a video to learn more about your offers. Setting-up scoring processes to identify prospects that have a higher propensity to buy is also a good tracking strategy. Sales calls to contacts that have shown moderate activity are a good practise.

Salespeople need to focus on customer-facing activities and closing sales. Their time is valuable and using them to do cold calling is not as effective as using an inside sales agent or an agency that specializes in B2B telemarketing services. Digital campaigns make it easier to track and measure audience interest and activity. This information can be leveraged by telemarketers to close the loop call those that filled inquiry forms and qualify for sales follow-up. It’s also important to track your sales team on these follow-ups to try and close a deal either short or long term.

If you have a limited budget and need to choose which marketing strategy is best for you, you need to consider your audience and the marketing technique to which they will be most receptive.

So don’t discard telemarketing! It can be an effective marketing tactic to close the loop and generate sales qualified leads!​Andrée Des LauriersMarketing Strategist